Give the Flowers a Chance

Still catching up on what we made in May here! You would have read in the last post about the trousers that Daughter No2 and I were both working away on her “fix it” pile, and making some new things. While I was happy to make for her (and always am), I knew we both had to be sewing to get it all done in the short amount of time we had. So while I made that last pair, I tasked her with another.

Trousers 120 03/2017

The trousers Daughter No 2 made are the cropped trousers, #120 from March issue of Burda. She’d ideally had had them as they are, fabric and all, but I had nothing like that in the stash! However, I did have a floral print slightly stretchy cotton that she’d chosen a couple of years ago at one of the exhibitions at the NEC. It was duly allocated to this pattern and we were off. I traced the 38 again, based on her hip measurements, and we used the toile to refine the fit.

She did all the toile sewing, while I pinned and marked and instructed. So she can sew, but she’s not confident at all in doing it on her own. But leave her alone in a kitchen for a couple of hours and wait to see what comes out! We all have our talents, right? Anyway, as before, we had to take the waist in a lot, just smaller than the 34, changed the crotch curve and depth, took in the inseams front and back down to the knee, and reduced the width of the outside seams this time too. They came in 0.5cm starting just below the hip yoke pocket, down to the knee. They were just a little baggy there for her.

So, a lot of adjustments and unpicking, but all worth it before sewing in the nice stuff! The pattern has slits at the hem, hip yoke pockets, a shaped waistband and invisible zip. The shaped waistbands are really helpful to perfect fit, and I usually cut the back with a centre seam, rather than on the fold, so there’s more room for adjusting. Which is just what we had to do in the final making up! The stretch cotton had too much movement, so I had to pin a bit more out of the centre back, changing the back seam slightly.

Hip yoke pockets

She’s done a fabulous sewing job here, and didn’t loose her cool that much… I know these are going to be well worn over the summer, she’s even bought new shoes to go with them! Workng together, we also managed to finish that fit it pile, and she went back to Birmingham with a bulging suitcase.